What did you do in the garden today?

Our dishwasher died yesterday, but today it rose anew! :wee Yesterday the dang thing wouldn't turn on, it looked like it wasn't getting power and I did check the circuit breaker in case it had opened for some reason but it didn't occur to me to reset it. So I emptied the machine and washed the dishes and set my mine not to whine. We didn't have a dishwasher for our first 12 years together so I wasn't looking forward to washing everything by hand again. (I know, first world problems)

I called our repair place and they said to reset the circuit breaker and that fixed it! I feel like a balloon that's been let loose!! :ya
 
Not a bad idea, but challenging here.
Getting them is one challenge. Keeping me from putting them in the basement to keep things off the door incase of water seepage is another challenge.
Check with any small printing shops or if your local school has one you can get pallets from them maybe. That is one of my jobs and we order nearly 50 pallets of paper each year. If you see any hanging out anywhere, just ask. Often people are desperate to get rid of them. I kind of think of pallets like zucchini’s 🤣🤣
 
I hate not having a dishwasher! When I'm canning & have to wash all the jars by hand I really miss having one. House was built with a wood burning cooking stove in the kitchen, lol, not a dishwasher. :gig I'm so happy yours is good to go @NewBoots!

Chilly out there this am, upper 30s but no frost yet.

I pulled the last of the brandywines yesterday:
IMG_20211018_122135516.jpg

& the littles aren't so little any more!
IMG_20211018_120702378.jpg
 
Wish I had a dishwasher, but there's no room for one. *sigh*

Was too tired to update yesterday, lol. We started moving our dirt pile inside our temporary fence. DH is doing most of the work on that so far. The baby was clingy again yesterday so I was wearing her, but because of the logistics, it becomes very difficult to do anything in that case.

Watered all the plants. I'm trying to do so quite thoroughly for the bushes and trees especially. I want them to send down roots before the first proper frost. The ten day doesn't have us seeing overnight lows in the 40s until next Saturday, but around here I'm actually making more accurate weather forecasts just by paying attention to conditions!

I need to order a frost cloth for the garden beds anyway. I want to be able to counter the worst lows and give the fall garden time to actually grow. The string of 80s daytime highs we're about to have should cause the seeds to germinate so long as I keep them watered.
 
Good morning all. Your chicks are adorable @Sueby. And yes, I do love my dishwasher. It was quite chilly outside here this morning. It got down to 37F but I didn't see any sign of frost. Making bread and finishing laundry today. I raked up some pine needles from the chicken yard yesterday. I didn't realize my arms were a bit sore from that until I was kneading the bread a little while a go. I'll try to get a bit more raking done this afternoon during the chickens "free range" time. There's been a pesky hawk hanging around so I don't feel comfortable going over to the big garden and working while it's checking out my hens. Tomorrow is likely the day I can spend some quality time out there getting the beds that aren't still producing ready for winter. My soil test kit should be here either tomorrow or the next day. Looking forward to seeing what condition the dirt is in. I have so many feed bags that I plan to plant cucumbers and squash in those next Spring with fresh garden soil. Hopefully there won't be any squash bug issues in them. The peppers and okra do well in containers so I'll be planting them in containers in my front yard. They do really well there. That will free up the the raised beds for tomatoes, kale, beans, carrots and chard. I plan on putting potatoes, leeks and carrots in the big 4 by 16 foot garden bed in the backyard. I don't think I'll plant butternut squash until the following year. Well that just wore me out thinking about all that planting. I'm taking DD to Olive Garden for her Birthday dinner tonight. Looking forward to taking a break from my own cooking. Have a great day everyone!
 
Prepping for winter and need some help...

Raised beds: I intend to just top beds that are not producing with compost. Letting kale and brussel sprouts go as long as they can and waiting for a good frost to pull parsnips. Sound about right?

Strawberry bed: What do I do? It's a raised bed full of 1st year strawberry plants and some runners. I was planning to just add some unsifted compost as mulch and it should act as fertilizer for the Spring. Should I pile straw over that? Do I trim the plants back? Do the leaves need to be covered to protect against frost?

Raised rows: these are just raised mounds that are 10-11 ft long and 3ft wide. I'm going to just get some unsifted compost on them if I can spare it after doing the raised beds. I'll probably throw some organic fertilizer down too since tomatoes and cucumbers were planted in these this year.

Rhubarb: 1st year plants in a heavily mulched bed along the fence. Should I cut the leaves/stalks back or just leave them alone?
 
This is what I do in CT - YMMV in your climate.

I cover all my beds with straw so I don't get weeds. & then the straw gets used as mulch the following year.

First year june bearing strawberries don't need to be cut back (do that 2nd year right after harvest, too late now) & should be covered with a few inches of straw to protect the crowns from both freeze & heaving. (I just looked this up yesterday for my first year june bearing, not sure what you have)

I don't touch my rhubarb - I just add compost & let them be.
 
Prepping for winter and need some help...

Raised beds: I intend to just top beds that are not producing with compost. Letting kale and brussel sprouts go as long as they can and waiting for a good frost to pull parsnips. Sound about right?

Strawberry bed: What do I do? It's a raised bed full of 1st year strawberry plants and some runners. I was planning to just add some unsifted compost as mulch and it should act as fertilizer for the Spring. Should I pile straw over that? Do I trim the plants back? Do the leaves need to be covered to protect against frost?

Raised rows: these are just raised mounds that are 10-11 ft long and 3ft wide. I'm going to just get some unsifted compost on them if I can spare it after doing the raised beds. I'll probably throw some organic fertilizer down too since tomatoes and cucumbers were planted in these this year.

Rhubarb: 1st year plants in a heavily mulched bed along the fence. Should I cut the leaves/stalks back or just leave them alone?
I babied and covered my strawberries and they died. Then last year after replanting and not getting hardly any strawberries, I had the attitude of "go ahead and die" and did nothing for them at all. They all came up strong this spring uncovered for the winter. I was actually happy so I gave them some fertilizer. Not one stinking strawberry and they wanted to die then. I give up. For real this time. :barnie
 

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